1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to information access technology, and particularly to user selection of network access modes according to location of information content, network and server capacity, and other factors.
2. Description of Related Art
Today's web browsing technology treats the Internet as a flat information structure. That is, to users all web sites appear to be on the same information "plane". Following a link from one site to another is like moving from one point to another equally distant point on that plane. Users have no a priori indication of the speed and ease of reaching information sources at the next site. Users also usually have no way to decide beforehand whether to access a particular web site based on its grade or nature of service, and so performance expectations are unsure.
While there are directory structures organizing the content of web servers, the structures do not indicate the "Electronic Proximity" of that information content to users. The term "Electronic Proximity" (EP) as used in this application refers to a user's sense of proximity, speed and ease of acquiring information over a network. Factors contributing to Electronic Proximity include the server capacity of an information source, the bandwidth of the backbone network, the bandwidth of the access network, the loads of the servers and networks, and the placement and access mechanisms of the servers.
Except in offices with LANs, the dominant connection mediating EP today is the multi-Kbps access pipes provided by V.series modems using POTS (Plain Old Telephone Services). With emerging high-speed access mechanisms, for example, cable modems, IDSN, and ADSL modems, this dominant access mode is increasingly being supplanted. The information hierarchy and differing pipe widths inside the World Wide Web consequently are increasingly being exposed, since users see more access bandwidth. As demand for access increases, in addition to adding server and backbone capacity to take advantage of new high-speed access pipes, it is now also possible to exploit new techniques of server placement and access mechanisms, to improve overall user experience on the World Wide Web.